County Holds Taxpayers Hostage, Mayor Says

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Tifton, Georgia

478-227-7126 ~ www.tiftongrapevine.com

TIFT COUNTY HOLDING CITIES, TAXPAYERS HOSTAGE, MAYOR SAYS

COUNTY'S ACTIONS MAY CAUSE PROPERTY TAX HIKES, SHE SAYS

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The Tift County Board of Commissioners is attempting to hold the City of Tifton "hostage" over the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), and unless commissioners "get their way," they plan to allow the sales tax, used to lower property taxes, to expire, says Tifton Mayor Julie B. Smith.

This could lead to "significant property tax increases or dramatic loss of city services – potentially both," Smith said Monday in a press conference Monday at Tifton City Hall.

Smith lambasted the County Commission for using extortion as a tactic to get the city to agree to the county’s terms for settling long-standing lawsuits over matters unrelated to LOST.

"This is our response: No!" the mayor said. "The Local Option Sales Tax we all depend upon to keep your property taxes low and provide city services have nothing to do with these lawsuits. We must return to the negotiating table immediately to agree on LOST terms for the next decade, as required under Georgia law."

If a new LOST agreement isn’t reached among the county and the cities of Tifton, Omega, and Ty Ty, then LOST will expire at the end of this year.

"The bottom line is this: LOST negotiations are too important to be used as leverage on unrelated items ... which goes against the intent of the law," Smith said. She called upon the commissioners and the mayors of Ty Ty and Omega to meet with the city during a public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday, July 25, to negotiate.

When contacted, County Commission Chairman Tony McBrayer told the Tifton Grapevine: "We're continuing to evaluate the comments made by the mayor, and we will have a response at the appropriate time."

When asked if the county will meet with the cities on Monday, McBrayer said: "We haven’t discussed it yet."

The pending lawsuits go back more than four years. In 2018, the City of Tifton filed a Complaint for Declaratory Judgment, asking a judge to decide issues involving ownership of the public water system because the city and the county could not reach agreement on their own. Tift County then responded with a $22 million civil lawsuit against the City of Tifton claiming damages involving water, sewer, and solid waste funds.

In early 2019, the city filed an amendment to its Complaint for Declaratory Judgment, claiming that the county has over-taxed city residents. That complaint also claimed that Tift County mismanaged Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) monies, diverting funds to help pay for a new fire department that voters never approved.

Last week, the city filed a new Summary Judgment in the case, seeking to get the matters settled.

"Those lawsuits will have their day in court – soon, we hope," the mayor said. "We are more than happy to let the courts serve as referee in a fair court process."

Smith said that the County Commission is using taxpayers as a "pawn" because she is "confident that the Board of Commissioners does not want the claims of the city to go before a court because the Board of Commissioners and the county administrator know these claims have merit.

"They are now seeking our silence with our tax dollars – your tax dollars," the mayor said.

BRAVES TROPHY TOUR ROLLS INTO TIFTON ON THURSDAY

By FRANK SAYLES JR.

Tifton Grapevine

The Atlanta Braves World Champions Trophy Tour makes two stops in Tifton on Thursday.

After winning the World Series last fall, the Braves have sent their championship trophy on a tour of cities through "Braves country" across the South. From noon-2 p.m. Thursday, the trophy will be displayed at Truist Bank on Virginia Avenue in Tifton, and then from 4-7 p.m., the trophy tour rolls into the Tift County Recreation Department on Victory/Ralph Puckett Drive.

The City of Tifton is organizing family activities, music, and food trucks at the Rec Department event, where fans get photos of themselves with the trophy.

The tour, which has been winding through Georgia and adjacent states, is sponsored by Truist Bank, which bought the naming rights to the Braves home ballpark in Atlanta.

Based in Atlanta since 1966 after years in Boston and Milwaukee, the Braves are the longest continuously operating franchise in Major League Baseball. Since 1991, Braves teams have won two National League wild cards, 19 division championships, six National League pennants and two World Series titles.

MOST AGRICULTURE SHOULD BE OK DURING A RECESSION, STATE ECONOMIST SAYS

Source: UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences

A possible recession in the United States may have little effect on agriculture, says Georgia's state fiscal economist.

"If I run a business in agriculture, do I care about a recession? During a recession, we don’t cut back on food. Theoretically, we may cut back on restaurants, so if I were a grower who grew fancy vegetables for expensive restaurants or who raised specialized beef, I might be worried about a recession.

“But, if I am growing peanuts, soybeans, blueberries, chickens, or whatever else, I don’t think it matters," said Jeffrey Dorfman, a professor of agricultural and applied economics in the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).

Yangxuan Liu, an assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics at CAES, said that the agriculture industry — with the exception of cotton — has traditionally acted as a buffer to the economy during recessionary periods.

“The majority of study about how agriculture responds to recession shows that the part of agriculture that contributes to the economy does not drop as much as the rest of the economy during recession, staying relatively stable," said Liu.

"For Georgia agriculture, poultry, eggs, and major row crops such as wheat and peanuts could navigate through this recession and provide some support for the state economy,” said Liu, who specializes in cotton economics.

However, “Cotton and cotton-related products are discretionary items. Thus, cotton prices tend to follow the economy, with rising cotton prices during economic growth and declining cotton prices during recessions,” Liu wrote in a recent article for the Georgia Cotton Commission.

The annual inflation rate in the U.S. accelerated to 9.1% in June, the highest since November 1981. Embedded in inflation, energy prices rose 41.6% and food costs surged 10.4%.

DR. STEPHANIE MORROW

DR. CHAD STONE

TWO TIFT COUNTY PRINCIPALS LEADING STATE ASSOCIATIONS

Staff Reports

Two Tift County Schools principals have been named to top positions of their respective state principal associations.

Dr. Stephanie Morrow, principal at Annie Belle Clark Elementary School, was recently sworn in as president of the Executive Board of the Georgia Association of Elementary School Principals.

Dr. Chad Stone, principal of Tift County High School, was recently sworn in as president of the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals.

The Tift County public school year begins on Friday, July 29.

GA PEANUT COMMISSION OPENS

PHOTO CONTEST FOR 2023 CALENDAR

The Georgia Peanut Commission, headquartered in Tifton, is hosting a photo contest through Oct. 1, to feature peanut farm families in the pages of the 2023 Georgia Peanut Calendar.

Photos selected will be used in Peanut Commission promotional projects throughout the upcoming year.

Georgia farmers may submit their best high-resolution photo of their family on the peanut farm throughout the growing season. Winning entries will be selected for each month of the calendar, as well as for the cover page.

When selecting a photo to enter, the commission suggests:

—Making sure the photo is not offensive and avoids large, easy-to-read corporate logos.

—Selecting photos representative of various months.

—Ensuring photos are in a horizontal format so they will fill an entire page of the calendar.

—Showcasing your family (young and old) and what being a Georgia peanut farmer means to you.

—Choosing a photo that helps others understand how you care for your crop.

Photo entries must be taken during the 2020, 2021, or 2022 peanut crop years and feature peanut production. Entries must also be high resolution (300 dpi), horizontal, and not taken with a phone; otherwise, they may be disqualified. Photos should be in jpg format.

The online entry form is available here. Winning entries will be entered for a chance to win a Visa gift card.

ANNUAL FUNDRAISER SET AUG. 6

The 33rd annual Run for Love fundraiser for the Tift County Cross Country team is scheduled Saturday, Aug. 6, with a 5K and a one-mile Fun Run.

The run begins at the tennis courts at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and goes through the ABAC campus and ABAC Farm.

Awards will be given for the top three males and females in each age category. Medals will be given for the Fun Run.

The 5K race begins at 8 a.m., followed by the one-mile run at 9 a.m.

A T-shirt is included in the online registration available here. Participants may also register on the morning of the race in front of the ABAC tennis courts.

TIFTON GRAPEVINE'S CATS OF THE WEEK

These cute kittens are among those available for adoption today at the Tift County Animal Shelter. Visit the shelter between 1-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, or call 229-382-PETS (7387).

Pets of the Week are sponsored by:

Branch's Veterinary Clinic

205 Belmont Ave., Tifton, 229-382-6055

TIFTON'S BIG CATTLE ROUNDUP

~ JULY 22, 1910

On the night of July 22, 1910, Tifton Police Chief Coarsey "turned cowboy, and with a half-dozen rangers descended upon the innocent bovines where they were peacefully sleeping and comely chewing the cud of contentment in the cleanest places of the city streets and, without warning, landed them in the city pound," according to news dispatches of the day.